BHUBANESWAR, AUG. 30. The raging controversy over the ``hunger deaths''
in
Orissa's Rayagada district has gathered steam with the Collector
denying
categorically that anyone in the district died of starvation.

The issue, however, has brought into focus the backbreaking poverty of
the
region's hapless tribals, and the fact that there has been little
improvement in their condition despite implementation of a series of
welfare
programmes by successive governments and voluntary organisations.
The opponents of the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance
Government have been extremely vocal in the past few days, alleging
that
people were starving to death in Kashipur bock of Rayagada.
The people were forced to eat mango kernels and other non-food items as
they
did not have money to buy food, the State units of the Congress and the
CPI(M) alleged. The tribals, most of them landless, were not getting
any
work and there was no sign of any food-for-work programme in the area.
The Rayagada Collector, Mr. Bishnupada Sethi, has denied the charge
emphatically. In a press statement late on Wednesday night, Mr. Sethi
said
as per the information available with them, 19 deaths occurred in the
Kashipur area since July. However, ``by no stretch of imagination can
they
be called as starvation deaths''.

About the death of seven persons in Panasguda village, he said Mr.
Biswanath
Majhi, a resident of the village, hired some labourers to work in his
field
and provided them food. Seven persons, including three members of Mr.
Majhi's family, died after eating the food, the Collector said. ``When
one
is employing the labourers, it is absurd to talk of starvation.''
In Bilamala village, Mr. Sethi said, four persons died ``after
consumption
of poisonous mushroom by mistake. Mushroom was used as a
curry/supplement
and not as main item of food.'' The death of four persons in
Badamaribhatta
and Tikri-Jhadia Sahi locality due to disease, ``is also being branded
as
starvation deaths,'' he added.

Four people also died in Pitajodi village, Mr. Sethi said. ``As per the
medical opinion, these deaths took place due to food poisoning.''
Claiming that the administration was quite responsive to the situation,
he
said a series of developmental works had been initiated and all
possible
steps taken to help the people.

Referring to the food habits of the area's tribals, Mr. Sethi said they
lacked a proper sense of hygiene and personal care. The tribals were
used to
eating mango kernel but the preparation tended to become poisonous as
they
stored it for a long time, he said.

Predominantly inhabited by Kondh tribals, Kashipur is one of the
poorest
blocks in the State. Allegations of hunger deaths have haunted it even
in
the past - when the State was under Congress rule in the 1980s.

However, one thing is clear. A majority of the tribals of Kashipur have
been
living without much income all these years. The benefit of various
welfare
programmes have not reached them for reasons better known to the
successive
governments. The authorities, who say the recent deaths are not due to
starvation, too admit that poverty is the main problem.
By all accounts, the issue of hunger has taken centre stage and
politicians
of all hues are busy reaping the benefits.

Source:http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/02310006.htm
Referred by:Benjamin.P.Kaila
Published on:30Aug2001
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